Take a break this Thursday to wander the streets of Paris and peer into the literary world created by award-winning author Patricia Engel. Engel will be coming to Duke to read and discuss her new novel It’s not Love, It’s Just Paris. The novel tells the story of young Lita del Cielo, the daughter of Columbian immigrant parents busily making their fortune in the Latin food industry, as she is granted a one-year adventure in Paris. In the streets of Paris, she enters into a divided world where the last of the old-blood elite drains between the cobblestones as a new wave of international wealth floods the city. Amid these scenes of change, Lita is swept away by a private romance, forcing her to decide between the ambitious dreams of her parents and the thrill of new love.

Engel’s other works include a collection of short stories entitled Vida, a book that enchanted Duke students and faculty last year when Engel visited campus for a reading. To find out more about her writing or explore her biography be sure to visit her website. This year’s event is presented by the Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South and co-sponsored by the Program in Literature, the Spanish Language Program, the Department of Romance Studies, and the Duke University Libraries.